Actress Fiona O'Carroll has spoken out about her family's fears over their dad Brendan's health.

Fiona O’Carroll

Brendan has been working on the hit Mrs Brown’s Boys stage shows and TV series since the 1990s, but his family have worried that the workload is catching up with him, the Irish Independent reports.

Brendan (61) plays foul-mouthed matriarch Agnes Brown, and the production is very much a family affair. There are many Donegal connections to the show, as Danny O’Carroll, Brendan’s son plays Buster and his real-life wife Amanda also stars among the cast. The young family live in Donegal, and their son Jamie also plays Bono in the TV series.

Fiona O’Carroll, Brendan’s daughter, said that her father took a much-needed break before the busy 2017 that is lined up for him.

“It’s got to do with timing and dad’s been doing this for quite a while now and it’s not always easy,” she said.

“He’s getting on a bit and, as a family, we decided now is the time he needs to take a break and enjoy his success.

“I was really delighted that he took some time out this year because we all knew that he needed it.

“He’s our dad, at the end of the day and we don’t want him working to the point where he made himself sick.

“We don’t want him burnt out, so he took some time off, played lots of golf and took a big, long break.”

That break and the busy schedules of the cast has put the Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie sequel for the foreseeable future.

“The next year is so chock-a-block that I can’t see it happening then. It will get made at some stage, maybe in 2018,” Fiona said.

Mark and Maria Brown in the New Year’s Special, played by David Herman and Fiona O’Carroll

Brendan and co will definitely not be putting their feet up for 2017. Brendan’s new Saturday night chat show All Round to Mrs Brown’s is planned to air on BBC this February. The family will also be doing a run of live shows at the end of the year, called Good Mourning Mrs Brown.

There were two festive specials of Mrs Brown’s Boys in the past two weeks. Check out the top five things we loved about the Christmas edition here.